Running a startup from the hospital

This holiday season had it’s fair share of uncertainty, fear and even sadness. My dad has been in and out of the hospital since the beginning of December. He has always had high blood pressure and almost every year he has to go to the hospital to get his pressure under control.

This time was different, for the past few months he has been getting tired easily and began having a really nasty cough. As usual he ended up at the hospital. His doctors where not making him better and the hospital he was in was not helping either. After changing his whole medical team and hospital and after a few days of tests, the new doctors concluded that heart valve replacement surgery was required. The news where very hard on him and on all of us, but it had to be done.

I wrote this post while waiting to hear news after the surgery. Now (while editing the post) I know that everything went according to plan and my dad is getting better rapidly. A huge relief for me, my family and all our friends.

As a startup founder I’m starting to get used to a roller coaster of emotions, some days you feel great, others you feel you can’t continue but keep doing it anyway. Yesterday while working next to my dad’s hospital bed he told me to keep pushing forward and making things happen. That felt great, I was starting to feel guilty for working while staying with him at the hospital.

Even though I have been doing some work while my dad has been in the hospital, my two co-founders have taken over most tasks. They are doing their jobs and mine, when we talk they first ask about my dad, listen to what I have to say and then give me words of support. They have never complained about doing all of the extra work this situation has thrown over them.

When I heard that choosing your co-founders is one of the most important decisions you can make in a startup I didn’t really get it. But now I do. José and Elving heard what was going on with my dad and automatically took over Blimp without me even asking. They are doing everything while being extremely supportive. Even if Blimp never becomes what we know it’s going to become, working with these two it’s a true honor.

Thank you guys, you are the best, with a team like the one we have there are no other posible outcomes, in a way or another we will succeed.

So, to summarize: in order to run a startup from a hospital you need really smart and awesome co-founders like the ones I have, @jpadilla_ and @elving.